Targets

1968, Dir. Peter Bogdanovich

Starring:
Boris Karloff, Tim O'Kelly

Guest review by Iniquity Films British Correspondent Steve Barron.

Hot shot 70s director Peter Bogdanovich made his
feature debut with this above-average, unconventional
thriller. After gaining initial success with Targets
and The Last Picture Show, Bogdanovich has hopefully
secured eternal damnation in the deepest pits of
Hades for inflicting the horrifying Barbra Streisard
in the appallingly dreadful What's Up Doc on an
unsuspecting human race. The excruciating Nickelodeon
and Paper Moon did him no favours, either.
The basic plot of Targets proffers comparisons between
the all time-worn screen horror purveyed by ancient
movie star Byron Orlok ( Boris Karloff ), and a far
more frightening modern horror; the lone, motiveless,
psycotic sniper.

Based upon the Charles Whitman case ( Whitman was a
student at the university of Texas, who climbed to the
top of a campus tower and proceeded to target and
shoot 45 fellow students - killing 12 - in 1966 )
Targets opens with the last few scenes from Roger
Cormans The Terror - supposedly Orlok's latest opus -
in actuality it's Cormans movie used as a plot device.
When the preview has ended, Orlok announces that he is
finished making horror films and plans to return to
England. He is only too aware that news headlines have
far surpassed his tame brand of horror : "The world
belongs to the young. Make way for them. Let them have
it. I am an anachronism."

Across the street from the screening room, clean-cut,
all-American boy Bobby Thompson (Tim O'Kelly), is
busily buying yet more guns to add to the virtual
arsenal he keeps in the trunk of his car. Somethings
badly wrong in Bobby's perfect little world - he lives
with his young wife at his parents home - and it
manifests itself when he guns down his family in cold
blood before driving to a nearby industrial tower
beside a major highway. He settles himself down (he's
even bought food and drink with him) and begins to
zoom in on passing cars, eventually killing several
motorists. meanwhile, the studio and Orlok's secretary
(Nancy Hsueh) are desperately trying to persuade old
Byron to make a promotional appearance at the drive-in
premiere of The Terror. Bobby has finished his
roadside killing spree, and heads for the drive-in for
more easy pickings.

Targets really should have been Boris's swan song. He
somehow staggered through a terrible Euro-horror flick
(Alien Terror, 1969) before finally shuffling off. he
very neatly parodies himself and the rapidly dwindling
impact of old-style monster movies in Targets, and the
finale brings together both strands of the film very
well indeed, with Karloff looking imposingly down on a
cowed Thompson: "Is that what I was afraid of?"
Quite frankly, Boris looks utterly exhausted
throughout this movie, and one scene in particular is
a little unsettling. As he lays down on his hotel bed
and wearily closes his eyes, you get the distinct
impression that he will not be opening them again. If
you didn't already know that he had another film in
him, it could be quite disturbing.

Karloff made Targets because he had a few days left on
his contract after making Curse of the Crimson Altar.
Bogdanovich cleverly builds his movie around Boris,
using his age and infirmity as pivotal points.
So why do these old troupers carry on trouping (often
to the point of death) ? Probably best left to the
trick-cyclists to answer that one. Bela Lugosi
ploughed on long after being eternally typecast as
various ghouls, vampires and hunchbacks - due to his
appearance and thick Hungarian accent - only to finish
his days a morphine addict and appearing in Ed Wood
movies; both of which are surely
fates-worse-than-death.
Boris (real name William Henry Pratt - hence the
change, I would venture to suggest) found fame as the
Frankenstein monster and was also mainly cast in
horror from then on. The problem is the horror genre
is subject to the vagaries of fashion like no other.
Some of the movies he made must have made him weep;
godawful, rushed scripts; micro-budgets and hard,
physical shoots. He even handled the final indignity
(an Abbot and Costello movie) with great dignity. he
was 80 years old when he made Targets - relying on a
stick to get around - and he looks tired and ill;
carrying on despite looking like he could drop
stone-dead at any moment. Boris Karloff died in a
Sussex hospital in 1969.